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Oliver Cromwell

The Rise from Obscurity

Trying and Executing a King

In January 1643, Colonel Oliver Cromwell was promoted
to the rank of captain, which released him from the command of
the Earl of Essex. He was assigned to aid Lord Grey of Warke, commander of
the newly formed military alliance called the Eastern Association.
The Eastern Association consisted of the armies raised in many
of the counties east of London, where support for Parliament's
cause against King Charles I was strong. The goal of the Eastern
Association was to rid its member counties of Royalists. As captain
of a regiment that came to be known as the "Ironsides," Cromwell
led his men to military victories at the northern frontier of the
Eastern Association counties. Between April twenty-three and twenty-eight,
1643, Cromwell's men besieged the Royalist forces at Crowland Abbey,
which they then made a parliamentary possession. Cromwell's successes
at the battlefield at Lincolnshire and in numerous skirmishes against
Royalist garrisons in 1643 were also an important of the Eastern
Association's efforts.

Whenever his men were successful in achieving their military objectives,
Cromwell attributed their success to God's assistance of their
cause. Cromwell felt that his military mission was also a religious
quest to defend God's church in England from Catholic corruption.
Cromwell's great zeal had a contagious effect on his men. As a
military leader, Cromwell imposed an exceptionally disciplined
regimen on his men. Cromwell's regiment was perhaps the best trained
in all of England, and Cromwell's men feared him greatly. Despite
the harsh discipline, which included public whippings for desertion
attempts, most of Cromwell's soldiers admired and respected him.
Cromwell was also very hostile toward professional soldiers–officers
from the English noble classes who often received their commissions
because they belonged to the right families rather than because
of their merit as soldiers. Cromwell irritated many of his superiors
with his confidence in the leadership abilities of men from the
middle-class, and with his habit of conferring promotions only
on those soldiers who proved their abilities on the battlefield.

Despite their early successes in 1643, Parliament's armies
suffered a number of heavy losses in the second half of the year.
Cromwell himself experienced some minor losses, and he grew rather anxious
with the overall situation. He blamed the poor outlook of the war
on his own commanders, who he thought were fighting too indifferently
to be victorious, and grew angry at Parliament, which he believed
was not doing enough to support its troops. By November 1643, the
money for supplying Parliamentary troops was drying up and the
situation became so desperate that Cromwell, along with his new
senior commander, Lord Manchester, went to London to demand more
support.

While in London, Cromwell proved himself more adept than
he had ever been at political maneuvering. In January 1644 Parliament appointed
him Lieutenant- General of the Easter Association, making him second-in-command
to Manchester. The following month, Cromwell was appointed a member
of the newly formed parliamentary Committee of Both Kingdoms. This
appointment was a way of recognizing Cromwell for his proven leadership
in the Civil War.

In July two, 1644, Cromwell's cavalry troops were largely responsible
for the Parliamentary army's first great victory at the battle
of Marston Moor. Cromwell's leadership was a decisive factor in
the victory, and his reputation as a leader began to spread beyond
the military and parliamentary circles and into the popular imagination.
Newspapers in London hailed him as the divinely appointed savior
of England. By the winter of 1644–1645, Cromwell had become a pivotal
figure in Parliament, to which he returned to resolve the recent
political falling-out he had had with Manchester and some of the
other commanders. Cromwell had strong disagreements with these
commanders about how the war should be fought, and they further
disliked him for his rather unorthodox disdain for the English
nobility. On December nine, Cromwell delivered a very powerful
speech to the House of Commons, urging greater commitment to the
cause of victory. "If the Army be not put into another method,"
he warned, "and the war more vigorously prosecuted, the people can
bear the war no longer, and will force you to a dishonourable peace."

Cromwell and his friends in Parliament were able to marshal
the political momentum necessary to push through a bill called
the Self-Denying Ordinance. This Ordinance made it illegal for
members of Parliament to hold army commands. It was a brilliant
political move which had the effect of sidestepping all of the
problematic infighting among the various Parliamentary leaders in
the war. Taking command out of the hands of Manchester, Essex,
and Sir William Waller, it united their armies into one New Model
Army under the command of a certain Lord Fairfax. Cromwell himself
was granted exemption from the Ordinance, and was made second-in-command
to Fairfax as Lieutenant-General of the New Model Army.

Parliament's victory in the English Civil War was sealed
in 1645, first with New Model Army's defeat of the Royalists at
Naseby, then with their victory at Langport. The Battle of Naseby,
which was fought on June fourteen, 1645, was a crushing defeat
for the Royalists and a stunning victory for Cromwell. The Battle
of Langport was the last major battle of the war. Minor fighting
continued until May of the following year, when the war officially
ended. As the end approached, Cromwell began to call for greater
political unity in Parliament. Many MPs resented Cromwell's appeal
for cooperation, but Cromwell's crucial role in the outcome of
the Civil War meant that it was no longer possible for him to be
ignored.